The UC Marketing Capstone Experience

Segmentation

April 10, 2017

This week marks the end of our Capstone project. All the work that we've done for months is now over and we need to present to the client.

Future student, you need to know this! Capstone is difficult, but you will learn so much about marketing and also about yourself. Here are some useful tips to succeed in this class:

Take notes, about everything and all the time. If you keep track of your work and what you have to do, you will be more efficient.

Don't hesitate to ask for help. Drew know so much about everything and he will guide you through this project.

Time is against you so stay organised! Time is your worst enemy but if you stay organised, you will have good chances to succeed.

Comunicate! With your client or peers, talk about your findings, but also concerns. Your client is also here to help you, remember that he/she wants the best deliverable possible at the end.

Thos are very general but if you don't follow them, it will make your project even harder.

To conclude this blog post, I just want to tell you, future capstone student, that this project will be very beneficial for you. No matter how hard it is, you will learn so much and be able to demonstrate your skills and the competences learned through your degree. It's going to be a challenge but at the end, you will be proud of your work and feel ready to face any kind of situation that your future carrier will bring you.

March 27, 2017

This week, Team Behr went searching for more insights. We interviewed paint store employees, homeowners who have hired painters, and the editor of a painting trade magazine, trying to discover if the people connected to professional painters could tell us anything about our target and whether anything distinguishes them from the rest of the pro segment.

One thing I've noticed about this project is how it has forced me to step outside my comfort zone when it comes to asking people for information. Walking into a paint store and explaining that you're a student who is working on a project and can you ask some questions about professional painters? That is definitely outside my comfort zone!

We also presented another draft of our survey to our contact, Lisa, who met with her colleagues and made final suggestions. Based on the questions they asked to add, it seems the team at Behr wants to know more about: a) why people become painters in the first place, and b) their use of digital tools to run their businesses. This is a more specific focus than we've previously discussed, and we know it's partly because of some research Behr recently obtained. We'll ask Lisa more questions at our next check-in to see what she's thinking.

Two meetings with Drew this week have helped us clarify the questions we're asking and given us a way forward. A recommendation for Behr is on its way! Now we just need to see if the survey we've designed confirms the hypotheses we've developed based on our interviews.

January 29, 2017

This week, Team Behr worked on gaining some firsthand knowledge of our client's customers by doing some "secret shopping" at the client's store (The Home Depot) and a competitor's store. We also worked on pulling together some quotes so our contact, Lisa, can establish a budget.

As I wrote last week, we need to conduct market research on a very specific demographic group, and we've been asked not to use any Behr internal mailing lists. That means one of two things: trade organizations, or paying for responses. We have reached out to a trade group and may have some luck getting to survey their members, but otherwise, we're probably looking at several thousand dollars for a statistically significant survey.

Lisa has said she can give us a budget once we provide her with some pricing options, but I can't shake the feeling that she might not have bargained on a budget of thousands of dollars for "just a school project." This, of course, is nonsense of my own invention. There's no reason whatsoever that survey responses should be somehow less valuable when purchased by students, and Lisa certainly hasn't given us any indication that she thinks that's the case. And yet, I'm concerned that talk of a budget might put a strain on our cordial relationship.

It's always difficult to talk about money, isn't it?

But I suppose money is one of the unpleasant topics that a marketing manager must face in the real world. We provide a valuable service (that, if all goes well, will lead to the company making or saving millions of dollars), and we will require capital to do it. That's just how it goes, and so we might as well get used to having the discussion.

Still, I hope the trade organization comes through with their list. That'd be a win-win.

January 22, 2017

Team Behr had our initial call with our client earlier this week, and for all our nerves about "meeting" the client, I think it went pretty well! It turns out our contact, Lisa, was recently a student herself - she just graduated with her master's in marketing communications, so she is familiar with the student experience.

I won't go too far into the details of the Team Behr project, partly because of confidentiality and partly because that's not really the point of the blog, but I will say that the project is going to focus heavily on market research of a segment that Behr thinks could be fertile ground for growth. Our project will involve assessing three things: the size of the segment, their openness to the Behr brand, and any needs they have that Behr can address.

So here's where the "ambiguity" that is one of the hallmarks of marketing comes in. We know that members of this segment exist at the intersection of two demographic lines. What we don't know yet is the best way to find them:

Should we begin with finding members of demographic group A and asking them if they are ALSO members of demographic group B? Or vice versa?

Should we contact organizations representing one of the demographic groups and ask them to connect us to their members?

Should we search social media to find people in our target for qualitative interviews?

Should we create surveys that prescreen for members of our target segment, so we can ask them some deeper questions right away?

One place we know we can't begin is with Behr itself, because we have been asked to conduct our research in the general population rather than with Behr's existing customers. This project is focusing on acquisition rather than retention, so the team at Behr wants the opinions of people who hasn't necessarily had experience with the Behr brand.

Of course, this is just the first in what I'm sure will be a long series of questions over the course of this project. I can already see a few of them: "What about the budget?" "When do you want to see results?" And further down the line: "How will we determine if the segment size is significant enough to target?"

I have confidence that as we continue to work with Lisa, we will answer all these questions, one at a time.

July 20, 2016

Last week I spent using the book Cracking the Ad Code to come up with some great ideas for ads, both simple and creative. I'm hoping that our client will be receptive of them. With the Innovation class's ideas this Saturday, we may have a lot of great material to present. This week, I'll be working on target customer profiles, which I'll try to go in depth as possible, and we'll use those as further evidence of our ideas. I haven't done one of these yet, so I'm hoping it goes well. Everything is really starting to come together, and now I'm both excited and nervous to present our strategy.

February 16, 2016

The question is whether to analyze compression users in general or separate them out between Veneus disease & Lymphodema disease patients to determine whether either of the two approach their purchasing habits differently - and if so - how?

Kailey and I had a briefing with Tom this past Thursday and he was very much interested in the qualitative portion of our plans. He had interesting insights with respect to the people who needed the compression therapy versus ones who just wanted it. The more they needed it, the more they were apt to be brand aware. This falls in line with the Lymphedema patients as so much is riding on their therapy and long term health. Veneus disease, however is more cosmetic in nature (in the beginning stages) and falls more in line with what Kailey and I were looking into because the "feel good" aspect is more prominent here (we're hyphothesizing). But if it holds true that this demographic is tougher to reach because they are less brand aware, the we'd be entering quadrant one in just introducing them to Juzo - a very expensive brand by nature already. That's a tough sell compared to a more "educated" group who may already know of Juzo's reputation (after much consideration of its competitors) so a sell of a new line would be less work (because the reputation has already been established. So with this group we're looking at Quadrant 3 - expansion. But now the "feel good" would have less resonance (I believe).

I think we're answering our own question here - seems as if three separate groups of Veneus, Lymphodema, and general users need to be established and determine how they view their need, find out how they feel about brands, research they've done, and more importantly (I think) what they hope to get out of it.

Casual wearers such as plane-riders, cooks, teachers, and such I think make up the bulk of opportunity as this group is the most "malleable" as to wearable technology. "Buy this and it'll make you feel good again" vs. one that requires convincing based on a condition - "my doctor prescribed this - I only need it to solve this problem - don't want bells and whistles i don't need." But again, this is an assumption. it could be a "my doctor prescribed this but with this extra feature that nobody else has, I could heal faster!"

The screened is being created with interviews estimated to happen early March.

Tom is also excited to find out more about its users for they haven't done research like this before - he also expressed willingness in assisting with the questions - a great opportunity for Juzo to find out anything they want from their customers through secondary research questions.

February 14, 2016

The end of this week has left me in high spirits. I realize that it’s all part of the project; the ups, the inevitable downs, and the in-betweens … but it sure does feel good after a week where the wheels are really turning. A call with our client earlier this week was a great confirmation of alignment and it is very motivating to hear that he really is genuinely enjoying this project. Not every client is enthusiastic, and for that I am grateful. Because Juzo has played a traditionally consistent role within the industry, Tom likes to dream about shaking it up and that’s where Zoltan and I come in!

The discussions have started turning into more of a comprehensible direction. From the start I have understood that the health industry is advancing rapidly in the world of technology, the most challenging aspect is piecing this together with compression. Zoltan even discussed this concept with a current user and her response was “now what in the world would my compression socks have to do with technology?!” Lucky for them, that is our job to figure out.

The key will be to use the qualitative piece to fully understand the experiences of various users in a rich context: purchase intent (medical, pain-relief, support, athletic, travel, etc.), symptoms, benefits sought, value experienced, brand loyalty,who referred them to compression (Doctor, advertisements, friend ...), how often they wear, the experience, etc. I think this will reveal layers of tremendous insights and allow us identify the target/s who have the most value-add desirability. With added research, we should be able to generate ideas to meet this desire through the use of compression + technology.

I have started thinking about one specific segment, pregnancy, and how this would be a really nice example: a strong market, common swelling, discouraging for women, high need for comfort & beauty (to feel/look good again), concern for the health of two! Even in the preliminary stages of researching, there are several practical applications of tying compression to technology to this specific segment. I won’t go into detail just yet :). It also correlates nicely with a recent discussion I had with Tom & Zoltan, the strategy of replacing another existing piece of existing technology.

Very much looking forward to rolling out the qualitative study, it will really propel us forward and direct the rest of our research. This week we also have the Innovation portion to look forward to. Concluding that it is a great sign when we are beginning to visualize outcomes!

March 22, 2015

With only 2-3 weeks remaining before we submit our capstone report, spring semester break was no leisure time. During this week, we carried out qualitative and quantitative research, worked on global market analysis and started work on the final report. It is now time to start analyzing the information. The next week will be the most critical for our capstone project. We have to formulate a story line comprised of all the individual modules to convey our recommendations to the client in order for them to achieve the project goals.

It is like a Hollywood movie that has already been shot, but before releasing it to the audience it must go through mixing, editing, dubbing and screen testing. We hope to deliver a blockbuster!

In the coming week, we will consolidate the quantitative data which will help us create the customer perception matrix. The customer perception matrix will be useful in completing the segmentation analysis and the five box positioning. The information obtained through one to one phone interviews (qualitative research) with the employees of the client's organization, will help us support our recommendations related to the sales management piece. Although, sales management is not part of the defined modules in the capstone field book but, given the dynamics of the project - goal, client, industry and competition, we thought that it is relevant and necessary to include it in the capstone.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Releasing soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Explosive Growth

Star cast: Autumn, Gaurav, Kayla

Release date: Apr 16, 2015

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Free screening for all UC students, faculty and staff members!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The past two weeks has been quite challenging. I found it very difficult to get motivated with all the obstacles life has been throwing my way. It has been a rough spring break to say the least. My team appears to not be doing well in the grandma department. The Thursday before spring break my grandma had a really bad fall, which caused her health to decline quickly. She passed away this last Friday. While I’m deeply saddened by all of this, I know that the show must go on! Thankfully I have a great team who supports me, and we have continued our progress on the project.

We have completed the STP modules of the Big Picture analysis and have begun on the 4Cs. It feels good to have completed all of this work, because our project has called for multiple STP models and approaches. As a team we have chosen to divide and conquer this information. I think it will be interesting to compile all our hard work and finish out strong with the 4Cs. We have already begun to generate a rough draft of the final document and an outline for the pitch deck that will be given to our client at the end of the project.

Over the past 2 weeks we have also been able to obtain a few more interviews. We interviewed an expert in the field, which helped us tremendously in our channel selection. He reinforced our thoughts about which channel to choose, and we plan to delve deeper this week. We also have an interview this coming weekend with a patient that is using a product more synonymous with the product we are trying to market. I’m excited to gain a new perspective and feel that this will build on our market research, allowing us to provide a stronger case for our proposed strategy.

My only hope is that we can continue to focus on completing the project and there are no more personal curve balls thrown our way.

March 8, 2015

Our second review with Drew went very well on Monday. We discussed our next steps and how we are going to get there. Drew gave us a lot of good advice on how to tie the project together. We discussed the details of how we will decide on our channel strategy and how to leave out unnecessary information and processes in our project. I felt a lot better about where we were at after leaving the meeting.

Drew brought up a great point in our meeting that I won't forget, and that was that marketing drives a business. The marketing strategy drives the decisions that the design and engineering teams make. If the marketing team says that their product is better than its competitors, then the engineering and design teams will have to figure out ways to make it better than competitors. The claims that the marketers make will drive the decisions of other team members. In our case, it is a little different because we started the project after the design and engineering teams had already created a prototype for the product. Either way, our part in this process is crucial and hopefully our business case will drive a lot of decisions with the company after it is presented. Our team will be confident in our delivery and will do everything that we can to make sure the ideas and proposals are carried out in the future.

This past week, we have been working a lot on segmentation and splitting our consumers into different categories. We will have different strategies for each target. This hasn't necessarily been more challenging, but it has added more work to our load. Working on this will allow us to start tying in other aspects of the project and begin honing in on the details. This week, I have actually been able to see the final project details come together, and have envisioned our presentation at the end of the semester. It will be amazing to see how much our hard work has paid off this semester and be able to bring something of great value to our clients!